davelepka

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Everything posted by davelepka

  1. Your fastest route back to regular jumping will be the AFF program. You'll have to sit through the majority of the first jump course, but you'll need it to remind you of the 30 year old stuff that still applies, and learn the new stuff that's come along. You'll also learn the procedures for the DZ and the first AFF jump. The jump will involve a freefall from 13k with two instructors maintaining grips on your harness right from the door. These grips are maintained from exit to opening with actual first jump students, the instructors may choose to release you at some point in freefall. In terms of equipment, you willl be jumping the DZs student gear while you are jumping with their instructors. The rigs are configured to make it easier for them to do their jobs, and that's what they'll want you to use. Every DZ has a selection of canopy sizes available in their student rigs, and they'll figure out what size works for you at the time of your jump. Everything beyond that will depend on your performance on that first jump. If you do well, they may cut you loose and clear you to jump solo. If you're rusty, they might want you to make another jump or two with an instructor. Likewise with the gear, what size and type of canopy you end up jumping will depend on the how it goes with the student rig. Overall, pay a visit to each DZ near you on a Sat or Sun, watch the operation, and speak to the DZO or an instructor about your situation. Pick the DZ that seems to have their shit together, and seems to have the best plan fo attack to get you back in the air. The good news is that once you learn the new gear and new DZ procedures, skydiving is pretty much the same as it used to be. Of course, most of the staff and fun jumpers weren't alive when you stopped jumping 30 years ago, but that's another story.
  2. Speaking of math, you could save thousands by buying a used rig to start off with. Rigs are like cars in that they take a huge loss in value the day you buy them. Unless you plan to do several hundered jumps per year and keep a rig for several years, the cost per jump on a new rig can easily be twice as much as a used rig. The flip side to that is that you can usually buy a starter rig for almost nothing. It's entirely possible to buy a used rig, jump it for a year and 100 jumps, and sell it for just about what you paid for it. The obvious upside is getting your money back when you sell it, the other upside is keeping a huge chunk on money when you buy it becasue it's half the price of a new rig. (Hint - take that money and spend it all on jumps, that experience will make you a much better jumper, while fancy new gear will not).
  3. That's just it, they own the domain name, and that ownership was public knowledge before someone else registered that same name as a Service Mark. What exactly the owner of a domain name can publicly do with it if the name has also been trademarked is another story, but as far as I know, the owner of the domain name isn't using it publicly, so his ownership is doing no harm to anyone and is his own business. I have to tell you, if I was considering a name for a business that I inteded to trademark, I would probably research that name before doing so. Choosing a name that the related domain name is owned by your only local competition seem pretty short sighted. I could see if the domain was owned by a business who delt in buying and selling domain names, then you might just figure you could buy it once you trademarked the name. But when it's owned by the guy across the airport from you, you're only local competition, you more or less give up the idea of every having a domain name to match your business name.
  4. So close it up. Don your rig and camera suit, and adjust everything so it's 'jump ready'. Note where the lowest point on the wing is sewn to the jumpsuit, somewhere in the vicinity of the lateral. If this point is above the lateral, then the hole in the wing is bigger than it needs to be. Camera suits are made to fit a 'generic' rig, and if you have extra space above your lateral, you can close it up with 5 or 6 wraps of supertack to extend the seam where the wing meets the suit. Run it right down until the seam is just lower than the lateral, and the wing lays across the top of the lateral. Now the hole is as small as it need to be. If you wing is already touching your lateral, then you're out of luck, the hole is what it is.
  5. Most of jump piloting is just flying. It's when the door opens and people start to climb out that things get 'specific'. As previously mentioned, not stalling on jumprun is a good idea. When you configure for jumprun, build in a 300-500 fpm descent, established and stabilized before you let anyone open the door. This way, if one of the jumpers should do something to casue a ptiching up of the aircraft, you're that much further from the stall and have that much more time to react. A 206 will empty out in way less than a minute. No jumper who knows anything about anything gives two shits about getting out 300-500 ft lower than when you open the door. The increased safety margin is well worth the altitude loss. It's not uncommon for an Otter to lose 1000ft over the course of a long jumprun, and I'd give that altitude up anytime, anyday, no complaints.
  6. A GPS in a moving aricraft does show a single point over the ground. Then, less than a second later, it updates, and shows you another point. Then, less than a second later, it shows you another point. What you're saying is the equivilant of asking how a movie actually 'moves', when all it does is project a single picture onto a screen. The GPS, like a movie, lines up all those points and simply calculates the distance between them, and uses the time interval betwwen points to come up with the speed. Now if you really want to make a GPS like a movie, you need to hire a piano player to play along and provide a soudntrack. One day, you might even see a color GPS as well! Can you imagine? Color and sound? What will they think of next?
  7. Not weird. I'm guessing they know why the OP posted what she did. I'm not saying it's because they know that Start lies about their business, but because they must know why she has an axe to grind with Start. They're right, Start has the online manifest thingy, and anyone can keep track of how many loads they fly, and what extactly are on those loads. If they were going to lie about something, it should be something less transparent than that. Beyond that, it's my understanding that Start has been very busy this season, and seeing as they have no real local competition, I'm not sure who they would be lying to anyway. It seems odd to me that the OP, with 7000+ jumps in 10 years still gives a crap about this, or would even reference the Mullins or Nelson stories, which were both well before her time. Mike Mullins was tried and found not guilty in a court of law, and in this country, that's all it takes. Roger Nelson did time for the crimes he committed. He got out, and opened a DZ which has been in business long enough that if there was funny business with the books or investment capital, it would have surfaced long ago. On top of that, the guy passed years ago, and the DZ is now run by his children. Should we blame Rook and Melissa for what their father did before they were born?
  8. Just to add something else, you can see that one guy says the V3 is the most comfortable, and another guy said the V3 is stiff as a board. Of course, some of that is just opinion, but some of that could be the perticular rig they tried on or jumped. For you, any rig made to order for your measurements should be comfortable, HOWEVER, make sure that the rig is sized to comfortably hold the canopies you intend to put in there. All rigs can hold a few sizes of main and reserve, with some being tighter, and some being looser. Lean toward the looser end of the scale, and you'll have a rig that is softer, more flexible, and once again, easier to pack. Some people are hung up on having a small rig, just don't be one of those guys. Even a larger sport rig will be much smaller than you're used to in the military. Also, keep in mind that any rig assembled with canopies reccomended by the manufacturer is going to be 'safe', so a loose fit doesn't really mean 'loose', is just means 'looser' than what would cause an average packer a hard time to get in there.
  9. You left out diving down lesson #1, always aim off to the side of the formation. Dive down, get on level with a stable, matched fall rate, then move horizontally into your slot. This way, if you 'over cook' your swoop, you can put 100% of your effort into stopping, and not have to worry about slowing down as well as sliding off to the side to avoid a collision.
  10. Not to burst your bubble, or downplay the offer of the manufacturers, but if that discount is off of retail, it's not as much of a discount as you think. Dealers typically end up charging anywhere from 20% to 30% off retail, so the military discounts aren't quite as huge when comapred to those prices. It's still in the neighborhood of several hundred dollars, but not the $1000+ is appears to be in the first place. The three you mentioned are all good rigs. Add in Javelin (Sunpath) and Infinity (Velocity Sports Equip) and you probably have the top five rigs out there. Check out the websites, go to a DZ or two and talk to the jumpers about their rigs (and take a look at them in real life) get a price quote and delivery time quote and deciede from there. Hint - ask anyone you contact about a military discount even if they don't advertise one. Jumping and the military are closely connected, and you can ususally get a deal. All of those rigs are good rigs, and will work well. There are pros and cons to each, and each has their supporters and detractors. I will say that whatever rig you get, you should buy a PD reserve. You should also buy a used main canopy with at least 200 jumps on it (400 is even better). A new canopy is literally twice as hard to pack as one with a few hundered jumps, and the new one doesn't offer any increased performacne over one that's already been 'broken in'. Used canopies are also about half the price of a new one.
  11. Students make mistakes, and that's why they jump with instructors. Again, look at all the possibilites of what the student might do. Of all the things that could happen, only one is better than what actually happened, that being the student pulls both handles, the main/bag leaves, and the reserve opens clean. That's the 'best case scenario', but the truth is that there are a host of other things that might happen. They range from pulling both handles with the main/bag not leaving due to low drag with the reserve firing into the reserve (like what actualy happened) to the student doing nothing, and the Cypres (hopefully) firing the reserve into the main/bag at 750ft, and everything in between. Take every option worse than firing the reserve into the main/bag, and you can wipe them off the table in 1 second by pulling the reserve handle. Add in being under 4k and quickly running out of time, you can see where this is your best option. Ask yourself this, when was the last time you broke off from a skydive under 4k? Essentially, this is the position the instructor was in, because he was docked in a two-way under 4k. Now add to the break off 'sorting out a bag lock for the other jumper', and you can see where time becomes a significant factor. Nobody is suggesting that there was anything good about this situation. The suggestion is that the guy follwed an acceptable course of action given the circumstances. There are always ten different ways to handle anything, and 2 or 3 of them would be considered acceptable, and this was one of them. Just dropping your grip and tracking away with the bag lock dancing around above the students back is not an 'acceptable' option.
  12. I added the bold print to highlight the relevant info
  13. Not much. I'm not sure what end they're trying to reach with such lies, but if they want to appear busier than they are, or are hoping to attract fun jumpers with their supposed level of activity, I'm not sure it matters one way or the other. Worst thing that could happen is someone shows up expecting to make a ton of jumps, and they end up only getting in a few. Not sure that's a real 'problem'. The other things you mentioned are either crimes, or breaches of contract, both of which can result in legal action and represent more substantial problems. If you want to really say something, and name names and show who was wronged and how by these actions, that would be something. As of now, you've made some empty claims about an un-nammed place being involved in some white lies via their email marketing campaign. Pardon me if I don't give a shit.
  14. That's the same bridle routing the Racer has been using for years. Oddly enough, the Racer with it's lack of stiffeners is probably the least likely rig to container lock in any way, but they're the ones using this bridle routing from the start.
  15. Maybe stop changing wings for an appriciable number of jumps. With 700 total, and jumping a KA107 at 1.75, how many could you have possibly put on any one wing? Even if it took you 4 wings to go from your first canopy to your present canopy, you're still at less then 200 per. The KA is a good wing, and a 107 at 1.75 is a 'swoopable' size for sure. How about putting 500 jumps on it and see where you're at then? 200 jumps on a wing is enough to learn to fly 'a' canopy, 500 might be enough to learn to fly 'any' canopy.
  16. It's either the main bag or PC swinging around behind the jumper as the reserve deploys. That swinging (if it was the bag) is probably what finally shook the bag lock loose and allowed the main to deploy beside the reserve.
  17. I tried to google that aircraft, and Foxhole Aviation, and came up with nothing more than the news articles from the local papers. Any chance of gettng some real info on this bird, like engine/prop make and model, airframe mods, payload increases, performance specs, etc?
  18. I'd be wondering what an alternative would be. As previously stated, the riser covers were closed, so the cutaway would have been of little use. Actually, all it would have done was to allow the main/bag to leave anytime it wanted, including during the reserve deployment, which would not be my first choice. The mal won't leave on it's own. like a PC in tow, or a bag lock such as this one, I would rather keep it attached until I had a reason (and a method) for getting rid of it. Pulling the cutaway and stripping the risers from the 3 rings isn't a possiblity during a terminal velocity malfunction. I would much prefer any variation of two-out over an entanglement between a cut away mal and my reserve. The two-outs can be managed (as shown by this incident) the cutaway main/reserve entanglement cannot.
  19. You're opening yourself up to some serious liability being an instructor in the first place. If you don't want the liability, don't do the job. If you're going to leave the plane as an instructor, be ready to see it through to the end. In this country, that's the D licesne minimum pack opening altitude of 2k.
  20. davelepka

    The Left Lane

    Get a grip man. You're on the freeway, doing better than a mile a minute toward your destination. Don't let a car being in front of you effect your mood or mindset. It's not a race, you're driving to work. Are you driving? Check. Towards work? Check. Mission accomplished. I drive 30,000+ miles a year and can tell you, for the sake of your license, insurance rates, health, and sanity, just get there when you get there.
  21. I doubt the harness grip would restrict the student from being pulled upright. First off, the harness grip is on the other end of the harness from where the rotational force would be applied. If the main/bag/risers wanted to rotate the student upright, it would have pulled on the three ring, while the grip is low on the legstrap. The one would not restrict the other. Additionally, the main/bag wasn't even pulling hard enough to unstow the over-the-shoulder portion of the riser covers. They only released (and I'm not even sure they did) when the AFF I reached in to try and clear the bag lock. Without enough force to dislodge two small tucktabs, you really think hanging on to the legstrap is what stopped the student from rotating? I understand loosening your grip, and even holding the student at arms length in anticipation of the deployment, but just to drop the grip beforehand or assume you'll drop the grip seems like a mistake. I recall watching the compilation video from the AFFJMCC back in the day where they show you all the bad things that happen on real AFF jumps. One of them involved an instructor dropping their grip before the actaul deployment, and the student having (I think) a PC in tow. The instructor tried to get back to the student but ran out of time. The student eventaully pulled silver, and the instructor and video guy pulled very low, but the point is that you're there until you can't be there anymore because the student slowed down beyond your minimum fall rate, and no sooner.
  22. Sure sounds like you are. Ask yourself this, if you were an instructor holding onto the harness of a student who was having a bag lock, do you really think that just dropping your grip and tracking away is a good idea? Of all the 'options' you listed, only one would be preferable to what actually happened, that being the student going through the full EPs. Any of the others represent either a worse outcome, or the same outcome at a lower altitude (whcih I guess is worse than what actually happened). Add to the situation that this was a high speed malfunction, and both the student and instructor were getting short on time. This isn't theoretical, or a 'what if', this was a real life shit-storm with no easy way out. The instructor did what he had to do, and the student landed without injury, and returned for serveral successful jumps (and I expect many more).
  23. Overall, no. For you with 23 jumps, it's probably pretty good. Tracking is a skill that you refine of the course of many, many jumps. Some of those might be dedicated to tracking, and some of those might just be 5 seconds of tracking after a group freefall jump. Either way, what they taught you during your training was just a 'fast' forward motion technique, which can be used to seperate you from others for opening, but is probably about half as fast or efficient as you'll end up tracking once you have 100 jumps or so. Tracking for group seperation is often done at a 'max track' which means you go as fast and as far as you can in the given time. This is different than most tracking dives, where the base will give up some of the 'fast' and 'far' in order to give others the chance to catch up, and then be able to fly around the dive. If the base was going at 100%, only those who are better trackers could ever catch him and get in the group, everyone else would be struggling just to maintain position. It's similar to RW, in that the fall rate is not 'max arch', it's a relaxed, middle ground speed. If you need to speed up to catch the formation, you could punch out your arch and catch them. If you go low, you can flatten out and get back up to them. The middle-ground speed makes going faster or slower (aka manuvering) easy to achieve. Likewise, if you were going to practice falling at 'max arch', a group RW jump would not be the place for you.
  24. One of the comments mentioned an actual trailer being played in front of the new Harry Potter movie, so I would expect to see one online within a few weeks.
  25. Set and work toward goals. Have something specific in mind, consult with a coach/instructor/senior jumper as to how to persue that goal, then allpy the advice given. That goes for solos or 2-ways with other jumpers (you should be able to do those soon). Remember, that being stable, tracking, and remaining altitude aware are the only freefall skills that save your life. Everything else is secondary, just games you play to pass the time in freefall. You should be spending an equal (or greater) amount of time planning, preparring and then debriefing the canopy ride, pattern work and landing. You might even find a coach or instructor not on your load willing to watch or film your pattern and landing, then debreif you afterwards. You could also enlist the help of a less qualified jumper to simply run the video camera, then you can use the footage to debreif yourself, or possibly catch a more qualified jumper after sunset to take a look at your performance, and see what they think. Opening a parachute saves your life the first time, and landing it saves your life the second time. Everything else is secondary to those two things, proceed accordingly.